What Hedge Funds Think About TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp (TPVG)

Insider Monkey finished processing more than 700 13F filings made by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of September 30. In this article we are going to take a look at smart money sentiment towards TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp (NYSE:TPVG).

TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp shareholders have witnessed an increase in enthusiasm from smart money of late. TPVG was in 6 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. There were 4 hedge funds in our database with TPVG holdings at the end of the previous quarter. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity, but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as TrovaGene Inc (NASDAQ:TROV), Tobira Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:TBRA), and Nathan’s Famous, Inc. (NASDAQ:NATH) to gather more data points.

If you’d ask most stock holders, hedge funds are viewed as slow, old financial tools of the past. While there are more than 8000 funds trading at present, Our researchers hone in on the moguls of this group, approximately 700 funds. These money managers watch over bulk of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by keeping an eye on their inimitable picks, Insider Monkey has deciphered a number of investment strategies that have historically outrun the S&P 500 index. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy defeated the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points annually for a decade in their back tests.

Now, let’s check out the latest action regarding TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp (NYSE:TPVG).

What have hedge funds been doing with TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp (NYSE:TPVG)?

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 6 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 50% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Alyeska Investment Group, managed by Anand Parekh, holds the number one position in TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp (NYSE:TPVG). Alyeska Investment Group has a $4.2 million position in the stock, comprising 0.1% of its 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Millennium Management, led by Israel Englander, holding a $2.7 million position; less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds and institutional investors with similar optimism contain John Fichthorn’s Dialectic Capital Management, and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, specific money managers were breaking ground themselves. Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, assembled the largest position in TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp (NYSE:TPVG). Citadel Investment Group had $0.5 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Muller’s PDT Partners also made a $0.1 million investment in the stock during the quarter.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp (NYSE:TPVG) but similarly valued. We will take a look at TrovaGene Inc (NASDAQ:TROV), Tobira Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:TBRA), Nathan’s Famous, Inc. (NASDAQ:NATH), and CDI Corp. (NYSE:CDI). This group of stocks’ market caps match TPVG’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 7 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $16 million. That figure was $11 million in TPVG’s case. CDI Corp. (NYSE:CDI) is the most popular stock in this table and TrovaGene Inc (NASDAQ:TROV) is the least popular one with only 6 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp (NYSE:TPVG) is even less popular than TROV. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.